The Tale of Kieu - Essay Example

The Tale of KieuThuy KieuThuy Kieu is the principle character of “The Tale of Kieu”. Kieu was a talented, well-bred and beautiful young woman. Her father was a well-to-do gentleman named Vuong. She was the oldest daughter of her father. Both Kieu and her sister, Thuy Van, were morally pure. Kieu fell in love with Kim Trong who was a scholar. Despite of promising to marry him, Kieu could not do that as her father was detained by local officials who started to torture him. Kieu asked her sister to marry Kim Trong and sold herself to Ma Giam-Sinh who was a wealthy merchant.

She used the money to free her father (Mark W. McLeod, Thi Dieu Nguyen. Culture and customs of Vietnam). Unfortunately, Ma Giam-Sinh refused to make Kieu his wife and forced her to become a prostitute and made her work in a brothel. Kieu won the heart of Thuc Sinh who was a regular patron in that brothel. Thuc made her free from that brothel and married her. However, he had another wife, Hoan Thu who forced her to work as a maid. Thuc was not enough courageous to protest against this. However, Kieu managed to run away and took shelter in one of the Buddhist nunnery.

Giac Duyen who was the head nun cared for her, but left the responsibility on Bac Ba who was an older nun. Buc Ba somehow managed Kieu to marry her nephew who again sent her in a brothel. Kieu’s fortune began to take turn towards the betterment when she met Tu-Hai who was a rebel (Mark W. McLeod, Thi Dieu Nguyen. Culture and customs of Vietnam). Tu-Hai was successful in capturing a large territory from the reigning dynasty. Kieu married him and being the wife of a leader she could punish her tormentors.

However, the reign of Tu-Hai was there for a short period of time. The imperial officials played tricks and convinced him to surrender. They promised him an official position, but after he surrendered they killed him. Kieu was again forced to marry an individual who was a local chieftain. She attempted suicide but Giac Duyen saved her. At the end, Kieu met Kim Trong again. She agreed to marry him but she also felt that there is no purity left in her as she went through some bad experiences throughout her life.

She convinced Kim to make their relationship a ‘platonic’ one (Mark W. McLeod, Thi Dieu Nguyen. Culture and customs of Vietnam).ReferencesMark W. McLeod, Thi Dieu Nguyen. Culture and customs of Vietnam, 2001. Greenwood Publishing Group